‘We’ll try to fulfil teachers’ requests’

Four days after the Karnataka High Court directed the State government to revisit the rules governing the transfer of teachers working in government schools and make them “family friendly,” Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar said here on Saturday that the Education Department would attempt to fulfil the requests made by teachers.

He was speaking during a programme organised by the Karnataka State Primary School Teachers’ Association to mark International Teacher’s Day. “If we have to fulfil all the demands of the teachers, then we will have to close several schools. We will try and accommodate and ensure that we try and fulfil the requests of teachers and send them to their hometown by May-end,” he said.

The Minister also said the department was planning to hire more non-teaching staff to reduce the burden of administrative work on teachers. V.P. Niranjan Aradhya, fellow at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, who was awarded ‘Shikshana Siri’ at the event, said there was a need to ensure that teachers’ education was stepped up in the State. As many as 50 teachers from government schools were felicitated at the event.